


Life, Death and Everything In Between

by JoAsakura



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 06:59:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11846358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: Since coming to Andromeda, Wolfe Ryder has been dead almost as much as he's been alive. As the hours count down to the final battle with the Archon, his choices, his options, become an abstract pattern. And throughout it, at least one person who makes him feel *real*. Reyes.for the MEBB2017. I could not have done this AT ALL without beta from Autumnyte and and Azzy's art and playlist because she knows what jams for my fic  <3. :Dazzydarling.tumblr.com/post/164359296898/for-joasakuraa-fantastic-story-it-was-a-joy-to





	1. VITA BREVIS

**Author's Note:**

> There are no tags for just "male ryder" ^^;

 

 

 

 

  
  
2819: Khi Tasira  
  
If there was one thing Wolfe was sure of as the pain lanced through his frontal lobes and he sank to his knees, it was this: He was sick to death of dying.

  
  
2189: Kadara  
  
“You look like you’re waiting for someone,” the man said, and Wolfe found himself saying yes to the drink before he’d even fully looked the stranger in his pretty golden eyes.  
  
  
2819: The Archon's flagship  
  
There was the feel of cold metal and hot liquid piercing his skin. Two-and-one-fucking-half million light years from goddamn home, and injections still sucked.  
  
"Don't look so offended, Pathfinder," the Archon said as his vision started to fragment. The alien warlord smelled like an old hot dog in a wet basement (like their home on earth, after Dad's career fell apart and all their money was gone. A rental in a town, in a place where no one knew Alec Ryder was... well... *Alec Ryder*. There was mold in the kitchen and Mom just smiled and said it would be ok. It wasn't ok. It was never ok.)  
  
<Ryder, he's injected nanites into your bloodstream. I'm attempting to disable them,> SAM whispered in his ear.  
  
"Nanites?" Wolfe said aloud and the Archon's eyes narrowed. "Bag an' tag there, boney mcroney?" His voice sounded like corrupted audio in his own ears, pitchshifting as his vision doubled.  
  
"I genuinely can't tell if you're a fool or brilliant." The Archon's claws cupped his face, and he dragged Wolfe closer. "I will strip you down to the mitochondria in your cells to understand how some debased primitive like you can control the Remnant."  
  
"Fuck you," Wolfe said with a grin. It's what Shepard would have done.  
  
  
2174: The Citadel  
  
"I think biotics are for asari huntresses." Ravenna Serina Ryder, five minutes older and four inches taller, sneered at him, holding his Armoured Turian Gardress action figure by the leg. His jaw still hurt where she'd punched him and she casually swung the doll around as they walked home from the transit stop. "Not stupid human boys who still play with little baby toys."  
  
"You're just mad, cause I got powers an' you didn't," Wolfe said, narrow hands balling into fists.  
  
(The growth spurt, the height, the breadth, it wouldn't come for years -  he just turned 11 years old, but he's so small for his age. The world is too big and he's too small to do anything about it. And Rave won't stop being... Rave.)  
  
"GOD I HATE YOU. Mom's gonna figure out how to fix you so you won't have biotics anymore and you won't keep embarrassing me at school because you have to eat all the time and get nosebleeds, because they're STUPID. " She threw the doll at him and as the figure broke, Wolfe's world suddenly snapped blue.  
  
('You never forget your first charge,' Shepard tells him five years later. 'You never forget how good it felt, and how much it sucked.')  
  
The air displaced as he came out of charge, shattering the windows in the surrounding flats, the boom echoing across the block they lived in and before he could hit his sister, his father was there, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. "THAT'S ENOUGH."  
  
(Caught both in the memory and hovering above it, Wolfe looks at himself, dangling from Alec's grip while his sister stares in wide-eyed terror. He's so skinny. Eyes so pale in an olive face, they almost look colourless. His father's eyes. Rave has Mom's, pretty and green. He wishes he had those eyes instead, instead of terrified husky pup eyes.)  
  
"She.. she started. She started it," he stuttered, flailing in his father's grip. "She broke my doll."  
  
"Maybe so, but you don't get to finish it." Alec let him down hard and stalked off, eyes tight. Rave scrambled after him, breathless, panicked apologies tumbling out of her mouth to the old man.  
  
"Wolfie." His mother was there then, holding out her hand. "Your father worries. And so does your big sister, even if she doesn't show it well."  
  
"He's a jerk." Wolfe took her hand and hugged the doll to his chest, scowling at the broken leg. He could fix it, maybe.  
  
"Sometimes." Mom grinned. "There's something very scary that happened yesterday, far away. It's got him worried, but I want you to see something. I think you're old enough."  
  
"OK?" Wolfe tucked the doll under his arms as he followed behind her to the lab she'd set up in the spare room. She clicked on a vid screen and fast-forwarded through what looked like a war. "Mom, what happened?"  
  
"Some bad people attacked Elysium, it's colony on the other side of the Galaxy." She sat down and hugged him. "But there were Alliance marines there, and they stopped them. One in particular." Ellen pointed at the screen. "That's Lieutenant Shepard. He's a biotic, just like you."  
  
Wolfe stared wide eyed at the blurry footage from a damaged newsdrone, eye-searing flares of blue as Shepard - face bruised and dirty, his uniform torn- dropped in and out of existence, the thunder of his impacts following a moment later, shaking the camera.  "The footage was already out before the Alliance could stop it. But they're saying he's a hero. The first biotic hero in the Alliance. He's called a vanguard."  
  
"He's so cool," Wolfe whispered, hugging the broken turian doll to his chest. "Mom. I'm gonna be a vanguard."

  
  
2819: Kadara  
  
"It's like kissing lightning," Reyes whispered to him as Wolfe straddled him on the stained couch. Like all the furniture in this shitty bar the Charlatan called his office, it had been repurposed from something else, and Wolfe was pretty sure it had been part of a livestock shuttle once. "Your biotics."  
  
The bass from below shook the floor and Wolfe ground against him, shivering as Reyes' hands slid along his undersuit. "I'm sorry." He rasped into the kiss. "I can't turn them off completely and..."  
  
"Are you kidding me? It's like kissing a god." Wolfe's eyes were shut, but he could feel Reyes' lips curl in a smile. "They're beautiful. You're beautiful. Please, Wolfe. The only thing you should be apologising for is not staying long enough for me to strip you out of this suit."  
  
"How about I make it up to you later?" Wolfe tugged on Reyes' lower lip. "I can do a little outreach, you know, part of..." he hissed softly as he bucked against Reyes' thighs. "Uh. Outreach."  
  
"You do know I love your outreach." Reyes laughed. "But, I think right now, I need to release you back into the wild so you can do your work."  
  
  
2819: The Archon's Flagship  
  
<I can release you from the bonds, Pathfinder,> SAM sounded smug and concerned all at once in his ears as the nanites burned in his blood. <But I'm going to have to kill you to do it.>  
  
<You can do that?> he thought, feverishly listening to Vetra and Drack struggling behind him. A wave of nausea crested and surged inside of him as SAM worked to neutralise the invaders in his bloodstream.  
  
<We've discussed the combat profiles your father created, that I've been refining for your abilities over his,> SAM whispered, despite the fact that Wolfe was the only one who could hear him. <I may have not been entirely forthcoming in explaining that the reason I can do this is because I have unrestricted access to all of your physiology via multiple implants in your cortex and brainstem. So, yes. I can stop your heart, which in turn will deactivate these biometric shackles. Once free, your powers can disrupt the ones holding our teammates captive, if revival goes as planned.>  
  
<If you have unrestricted access to my body...> Wolfe blinked against his swimming vision.  
  
<Yes. I am exactly aware of your lurid sexual fantasies involving Mister Vidal and some of our other friends,>  SAM said exactly in the same tone he used to inform Wolfe of environmental changes. <I think you are grossly overestimating your ability to...>  
  
"Set me free, why don't you, SAM," Wolfe sang and Drack yelled at him as his heart stopped for the second time in as many months. "Seriously, SAM. Kill me now."  
  
His life review was not improving with further viewings, he thought as he died for at least the second time in as many months.  
  
  
2819: Khi Tasira  
  
He couldn't breathe, and the Archon was in his head, Rave was in his head, SAM was in his head and it was too much too much. He couldn’t think, couldn’t act. All around, the lights on the Remnant devices flared, echoing his distress as his powers sizzled and popped against the gleaming black floor.  
  
Wolfe knew he was clawing at his suit, legs scrabbling for purchase against nothing, and someone was holding him fast as he tried to make his lungs work.  
  
He could hear echoes - Peebee screaming into the comms and someone talking soft and fast, alien words of comfort murmured against his forehead. Jaal, and Wolfe could feel the anguish in the bioelectricity sparking in concert with his sputtering, uncontrolled biotics. (It was only right, he'd thought earlier, that Jaal come with them to the City. Jaal, his brother, his best friend. Where his people had started. It was only right and why couldn't he breathe and...)  
  
(Oh,) Wolfe thought, suddenly detaching from the panic and the pain. (Brainstem. I can't survive without SAM. Rave has him now and the Archon has her and I'm dying. I'm dying again for real.)  
  
  
2179: Rio, Earth  
  
He stood six inches over Ravenna now as they walked home from school. The third school in two years, each place slightly more remote than the last to get away from the damage Alec Ryder's name had done to their lives.  
  
(He doesn't know Mom is sick, but he would soon.)  
  
The house was small, nestled in a lush garden, and Wolfe and Ravenna both knew that the more they loved it, the more likely it was that they'd be leaving soon.  
  
"So, you got accepted by the academy?" His sister hoisted her backpack. "You used Mom's last name too, didn't you? Because that's sure as hell how I got my uni acceptances. I can't wait to finish testing out."  
  
"Well, it isn't like Ellen Alpay is a name associated with illegal AI research." Wolfe sighed. "Dad's friend, Captain Anderson put in a good word for me, though. I'm going right into the early biotic enrichment pipeline."  
  
"I'm proud of you, Woof." She bumped her shoulder against his, then poked him in the chest, grinning when he winced. "You gonna tell Mom and Dad you got a tattoo to celebrate?"  
  
"I certainly am sure as fuck not going to tell them I got a tattoo." Wolfe pulled his shirt open. Three rabbits in a circle, ears enjoined, right over his heart. "Just like I'm not telling them you got one too. Admit it though, they're pretty cool."  
  
"Life. Death. Rebirth, I know." Rave rolled her shoulder where the same rabbits sat on her back. "They are super cool. They're gonna kill us, though."  
  
"Come on, I know for a fact that Dad has a cartoon pyjak on his lower back that he refuses to explain, I saw him without a shirt that one time he went with us to the beach. He's got like zero reason to..." Wolfe trailed off as they saw the fancy skycar sitting in front of their house.  
  
Rave frowned. "I didn't know we were expecting visitors."  
  
"Looks official. Maybe dad is finally getting carted off," Wolfe muttered, not bothering to dodge as his sister slugged him in the arm.  
  
"Wolfe." Captain Anderson was standing in the doorway next to Dad, the elder Ryder's face doing that thing Wolfe understood was his attempt at being pleasant, but really just coming off constipated. There was third man beside them, short and stocky with a messy shock of bright red hair and old-ice eyes in a blunt-featured, handsome face.  
  
"OH MY GOD LIEUTENANT SHEPARD," Wolfe screeched, dropping his backpack. Behind him, his sister made a strangled sound that was half-gasp, and half- choking laughter.  
  
(The part of him watching the memory cringes in sympathy. He'd gone through every conceivable human emotion in a span of two seconds, including a horribly-timed and wholly inappropriate boner.)  
  
"Lieutenant Commander, now." Shepard's eyes crinkled and he held out his hand, small and rough, nails bitten, and Wolfe relaxed fractionally. "So, I hear you're planning on being a vanguard."  
  
  
2819: Kadara  
  
"Oh my god, Rey, what IS this place?" Wolfe spun around in the little cabin overlooking a neon blue lake. Kadara's sulfur-yellow sunlight streamed in through the windows, and a fine layer of dust covered everything. Like everything else on Kadara, it still smelled like rotten eggs and a bad fart, but as the vaults churned away, it got a little better each time he came back.  
  
"Someone's abandoned attempt at a settlement." The hidden king of Kadara Port grinned as he pawed through a crate. "I've been using it as a storage unit, but I thought it'd be nice, maybe, if Wolfe Ryder and Reyes Vidal could have a place that was not also the Pathfinder and the Charlatan's."  
  
"I *love* it. I have a sad-eyed kitten painting that will look absolutely bomb on that wall." Wolfe scooped up the smuggler and backstepped them both, laughing, to the dusty bed. He flopped down in a cloud of dusty brown motes, the Charlatan perched on top of him with a grin. "I make amazing breakfasts, you know. And I am willing to make them in nothing but an apron if it'll pay you back for this place."  
  
Reyes straddled him, tawny skin and golden eyes made richer in the dusty light as Wolfe softly cursed, struggling to undo the other man's top. "I am so deeply conflicted right now. On the one hand, there is an amazing biotic god who will cook for me bare-assed.  And that is a quality, quality ass- perhaps the finest human ass in all of Andromeda," Reyes shimmied out of his shirt and his cat's smile curled wider as Wolfe's big hands travelled down his chest to hook the waistband of his pants.  "On the other, this same beautiful..." Reyes bent to kiss Wolfe as the bigger man slid his hands down the back of his pants to knead his rear. "...vanguard...boyfriend used part of his packing weight limit to bring a sad-eyed kitten painting from the Milky Way."  
  
"Come on. It's on *black velvet*, Rey. I took an art therapy class after the shrapnel to the face incident..." Wolfe's words trailed off as Reyes traced the mass of scar tissue under his eye with his lips, nimble fingers releasing the latches on Wolfe's armour. "Did you think I was gonna let a masterpiece like that rot, forgotten, two and a half million light years away? I think not," he added indignantly.  
  
"That's what I love about you. You see the beauty and the possibility in everything, Ryder," Reyes mumbled against Wolfe's jaw as they squirmed him out of the chestplate. "Even cheesy black velvet paintings."  
  
"I like that name when it comes from you." Wolfe arched against him. "Say it some more?"

"Always, Ryder. My wolf, my hunter, always."

  
  
2819: The Archon's Ship  
  
There was missing time, Drack and Vetra unconscious, in between the injection and SAM killing him.  
  
He hadn't realised it until his brain had started doing "This Was Your Life, AGAIN."  
  
The Archon took samples of him. His hair, his blood. Frozen in the stasis field, his link with SAM stuttering in bursts of white noise as the scientists unfastened his armour to examine it. They peeled him out of his suit, noting the tattoos across his body -the geometric patterns on his neck, the vanguard corps logo etched into his arm or the pyjak on his lower back, the faded rabbits over his heart.  
  
"I can't decide if I am going to gift you with exaltation when this is all finished, Pathfinder." The Archon's alien eyes blinked too slowly and his voice sounded a million miles away. "I could kill you right now, but yes, bag and tag, as you say. You're much more interesting let back loose in the wild where I can see what you do next."  
  
He paced, watching dispassionately as his researchers took more samples, and Wolfe tried to curse, to scream at them as the needles slid beneath sensitive skin. "I'm learning your language, a bit, through the translators. Wolfe. Your progenitors, they named you after a beast, a wild animal, yes? A predator to be sure, but that is not a name worthy of emulation. I will find your secrets, Pathfinder- beast child, and maybe, perhaps, I will keep you as a pet when I have acquired Meridian. I will not exalt you, but keep you leashed by my side and watch you learn to love the scraps I feed you as your peoples join the ranks of the kett."  
  
His clawed hands closed lightly on Wolfe's throat, and the Pathfinder could barely blink in response. "Once I learn your secrets, I will enjoy watching you break."

  
  
2183: Arcturus  
  
There were only so many times, so many ways, something could break before it was unrepairable, Wolfe thought as he clomped along the outside of the mass relay's observation station.  
  
"Lieutenant Ryder, you see the problem yet?" Commander Dunning's voice crackled in his ear, and he cringed at the name. He'd taken a round to the face during a peacekeeping skirmish on the borders of the Skyllian Verge, and when his records had updated, everyone in the unit discovered that Lieutenant Wolfe Alpay was actually the son of AI-Lover and All-Around Disgraced N7 “Mad Alec” Ryder.  
  
After that, a fast series of decidedly lateral promotions had led him back to Arcturus, in a dead-end outer space shack as a glorified guard dog.  
  
"No sir, although it'd be nice if maybe someone in engineering could check the shield emitters?" Wolfe muttered as he popped the panel open. "You know, someone with actual training in repairs? I'm a biotic."  
  
"I'm sorry, Ryder. I didn't realise that vanguards were too good for maintenance patrols," the Commander said sharply, sing-songing the word that meant more to Wolfe than anything. "A lot of folks, they're still not comfortable with biotics serving alongside humans, Ryder. Are you gonna be a problem?"  
  
"Sir, with all due respect I am human." Wolfe cursed softly as his barrier reacted to the sparking fuse.  
  
"Are you talking back to me, marine?" Dunning said, his thin, nasty smile audible over the crackling comms. "I want to see you in my office as soon as those repairs are done."  
  
"Yes, sir." Wolfe sighed, sitting down heavily on the station's hull. In the distance, the Relay slowly rotated, glowing like a young sun. Bathed in that blue glow, and feeling the eezo hum in his nerves, Wolfe wanted to be anywhere but where he was that moment.  
  
2819: The Archon's Ship  
  
"You won't remember this," The Archon hissed in his ear, rank breath hot against Wolfe's cheek as the alien tightened his grip on his throat. His other hand trailed along Wolfe's chest, raking red lines across the rabbits as the scientists prepared to re-dress him "Ah, but I see your fear, animal. I'm going to find everyone you love, and make you watch as I exalt them. Their eyes will only see the glory of the kett and look at you like the beast you are, so-called Pathfinder. Every night, I will make you beg for exaltation, for my mercy, and every night I will deny you that. We're going to have such a good time."  
  
"Your... fear. I'm gonna kill you," Wolfe said, slowly forming each syllable through the field, forcing his jaw to work as his powers crackled along the edges of his skin. "I *will* remember that, fuckstick."

  
  
2179: Rio, Earth  
  
The air echoed with the fading boom of the biotic charges and Wolfe collapsed on the hillside, watching the sunset light Shepard's crackling powers as the older vanguard sat down beside him.  
  
"Your dad told me he's really proud of how hard you've been working on training your powers." Shepard leaned back on his elbows to watch the red clouds slide overhead.  
  
"My dad is an asshole, Commander." Wolfe sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. "And my mom's sick because of me."  
  
"Your dad *is* an asshole," Shepard agreed. "But the two aren't always mutually exclusive. And that is not your fault or your problem, kid. And neither is your mom's illness- you didn't make her sick. Captain Anderson told me she's the reason people like you and me, we can do what we can do."  
  
"But..." Wolfe looked up at the other man. Shepard was so much smaller than he expected, but so much more powerful. He could hear the biotics cascading off of him like the sun. "I just feel like I can't do anything. I'm scared. Of, of like everything."  
  
"Do you know how scared I was on Elysium?" Shepard flopped down next to him. "Every time I dropped out of charge, I had a million things to be afraid of. Not just, you know, getting killed. I mean, that was the biggest one," he paused as Wolfe choked back a laugh, and those old-ice eyes lit with a grin. "But you know, using my powers without command authorisation, getting court-martialled, stupid shit like I was never gonna see another Turian soap opera or eat jam again. I was so scared, and you know what? Being scared is ok. Being scared keeps you alive. Don't fight it, embrace it. Use it."  
  
"Will you be my dad from now on? I like you so much more," Wolfe blurted out, then covered his mouth, face burning.  
  
"I'm gonna take that as the compliment intended and not as an indicator you think I'm old enough to be your father." Shepard laughed, kicking Wolfe lightly in the shin. "Just remember, we're still a new breed, biotics. People don't like us, they don't trust us, and it's not gonna be easy.  But you ever need maybe a big brother to call on and vent at, you can always come to me, deal?"  
  
"I'll remember."  
  
  
2819: Kadara  
  
"I could get used to watching  a big naked man cook up a mess of powdered eggs for breakfast all the time." Reyes stretched on the dusty bed as Wolfe scrambled up some, carefully measuring out the purified water. Kadara might have smelled marginally less sulfurous, but the water was still a little dicey. "Even if that man has pyjak pinup tramp stamp."  
  
"I could get used to being naked for you all the time." Wolfe grinned over his shoulder, turning the heat down. There was a pleasant ache in his muscles, and the memory of Reyes' body beneath his, demanding more with every single thrust, curled a fresh knot of pleasure in his belly. "I mean, for all your big dumb naked man needs." The newest tattoo, a cartouche in ancient Egyptian, itched faintly on his hip.  
  
There was the soft rasp of covers as Reyes slid off the bed and padded over to him, and Wolfe shivered as the smuggler stood on his toes and kissed the back of his neck, right at the base of his amp jack, clever hands tracing the lines of muscles, fingertips lingering the tattoos, the fresh bruises and the numerous scars Andromeda had gifted him with. "You let Keema do whatever she wants with the port anyways, and once we deal with the kett, you and I... we could both just retire here, make the occasional living off of random acts of smuggling, and.."  
  
Reyes' hands stilled and then his arms tightened around Wolfe's waist. "You were panicking in your sleep," he said softly against Wolfe's back, and the big vanguard turned in his embrace. "I'm going to help you, in any way I can, against that son of a bitch who hurt you." Reyes looked up at him, golden eyes fierce.  
  
"Rey." Wolfe cupped his face. "You kind of have your hands full making sure everything stays peaceful here,  between the settlement and the exiles and the angara and..." He smiled, even as the smuggler slugged him. "Hey, I'm serious!"  
  
"Do you know how I got the call sign 'Anubis', back in the day?" Reyes' expression darkened, his hand resting on the jackal on Wolfe's hipbone.  
  
"No, because you haven't told me," Wolfe said lightly, even as his lover's embrace tightened on him. "I like it, though. The opener of ways. The original pathfinder." Wolfe guided Reyes’ hand to the tattoo on his hip, and smiled a little bit.  
  
"Love, if I get to this Archon before you do, you'll understand why." Reyes reached around him and turned the little stove off. "Leave the eggs. I have extremely important big, naked man needs of you," he whispered, sliding his hand back over Wolfe's hip and lightly raking his nails across the bigger man's hardening shaft. "More urgent than breakfast."  
  
Wolfe grinned. Life, for the moment, was good.  



	2. THE MEASURE OF MAN

  
2183: Vancouver, Earth  
  
The memorial ceremony was somehow simultaneously florid and perfunctory, more performative than anything else and Wolfe's stomach felt cold and strange, like some alien creature had taken up residence in his body and was doing what it wanted without any actual input from him.  
  
The invitation to attend had come from Admiral Anderson, and as he stood there, with his family and the stares bouncing off his father's back like a fifth member to their party, he wondered how something like a Geth attack could have laid low a ship like the Normandy. A person like Shepard.  
  
When it was over, the speeches, the posthumous medals, the endless bloviating, Ravenna and Dad peeled off to speak to a small, sobbing asari he didn't recognise. He remained, holding his umbrella and staring at the freshly turned earth as the grey sky opened up with rain.   
  
"Lieutenant Ryder?" A deep voice with a gentle rasp startled him, and Wolfe turned to look at the man. Kaidan Alenko, one of the few L2 biotics in active service. In their few correspondences, Shepard had mentioned his first officer enough that Wolfe had a suspicion they were more than friends.  
  
The look on Alenko's face only confirmed it. "It's Lieutenant Commander Alenko, correct?" Wolfe saluted on autopilot then awkwardly relaxed. "Sorry. Habit." He scratched through his coarse crop of rusty hair. "I'm so sorry for your loss, sir. I can't imagine what you must be going through."   
  
Alenko's heavy brows lifted and he smiled, just a bit. "Call me Kaidan. Shepard, he told me about a young vanguard he thought was gonna do big things. I heard you got the boot..." Alenko paused. “And I’m very sorry to hear about your mom. If it wasn’t for her research…”  
  
Wolfe winced. Shepard had reminded him again and again that Mom’s illness had not been his fault. Automatically, he rubbed the amp at the base of his skull. “Yeah, well…” he started, then looked off for a moment, wishing his friend was there.  
  
"Job-wise, once everyone knew who my dad was, my career sort of took a nosedive anyways." Wolfe ducked his head. "It was sort of a mercy killing, getting discharged." He shrugged. "Are you doing ok, sir.. uhm. Kaidan?"  
  
"No, but maybe someday." Kaidan nodded, blinking at the rain in his eyes. His barrier shuddered for a moment, and the raindrops began to arc away, pattering against an invisible field. "I find keeping busy helps. I'm... I'm going to propose a biotic task force once things settle down. Both he and I felt pretty strongly about... about how we're being used in the Alliance. I'd like you to consider being a part of it."   
  
"I would love to sir. Mister Alenko. Kaidan. Sir," Wolfe stammered with his face burning. Then he looked past Kaidan at his father's back, Alec looming over the asari and his daughter. "But believe it or not, I signed up for a job with my sister and dad."  
  
  
2819: Habitat 7  
  
It was the second time that day that Wolfe had gotten a lungful of Habitat 7's poisonous atmo. It did not improve with repetition.  
  
The first time, he'd quickly sealed the crack in his faceplate with a squirt of omnigel and let the oxygen scrubbers in his suit kick into overdrive. His biotics had saved him from becoming a stain on the planet's hostile surface, but everything had hurt and he'd allowed himself the luxury of thirty seconds of pure, unalloyed terror before he'd picked himself up and tried to figure out what to do.  
  
Six hours after being flung from an exploding shuttle, he'd been shot repeatedly by strange, *definitely hostile* aliens, struck by lightning, had his suit chewed on by an invisible space dog, and thrown off a cliff by a possibly malfunctioning ancient atmosphere regulator.  
  
Ears ringing, he sat up and planned to make some witty comment to his father, who had landed like an old scarecrow in a patch of angry-looking fungus. But then he opened his mouth and in that moment, realised through the haze of at least his second concussion of the day, that his faceplate wasn't just cracked, it was shattered. Bits of transparasteel and polyglass stuck in his skin and his white-gloved hand came away covered in blood.  
  
The air was cold and damp and the smell of lightning and burnt earth filled his nose as a precious few seconds ticked by. "Dad," Wolfe gasped out, the last of the oxygen in his lungs being replaced with the toxic stew he was breathing in. It curled in his throat and lungs, some thick, cold mass churning as if it were alive with each breath he tried to take.  
  
"WOLFE!" Alec scrambled over to him, leg dragging at a horribly wrong angle, and his black-armoured hands were shaking as he tried to get Wolfe's helmet off.   
  
He couldn't understand what was happening in the moment. Alec Ryder's hands were never anything but steady. Those almost-colourless eyes that Wolfe had inherited never were wide with terror like they were now, and Wolfe wasn't sure who he was looking at as his vision went grey.  
  
"It's ok.  It's ok," Alec chanted, Wolfe tried to listen as the broken helmet finally came free, and his father replaced it with his own. The suit VIs wouldn't mesh at first and Alec was yelling at SAM as his father's HUD flashed telemetry from it's proper suit in the corner of Wolfe's eyes. Alec Ryder was dying along with him.  
  
"Dad." Wolfe tried to make the word come out again as he pawed fitfully at the helmet, trying to give it back, but Alec caught his wrists and held him tight.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Wolfie. This is going to hurt." His father's voice was more a vibration against the faceplate as he cradled Wolfe against him. "Everything is going to hurt, but we don't have a choice."  
  
And dumbly, Wolfe wondered how that could be, since he was already dead.

  
  
2819: Kadara  
  
The cave was cold and clammy, but Reyes' lips were so very warm as he pushed Wolfe against the damp stone. The Collective had done their work, removing any trace of the coup that had just occurred, until nothing was left aside from a two-bit smuggler climbing an enormous vanguard like a tree.  
  
Wolfe hoisted Reyes against him, the back of his hardsuit scraping against the stone as the smaller man's legs wrapped around him. "You have terrible taste in men." Reyes huffed a soft laugh in his ear.   
  
"The worst," Wolfe agreed, nipping at his jaw. He could feel Reyes' pulse hammering beneath the fragile skin. For all he'd kept a cool facade, he'd been terrified. Terrified Wolfe would have turned against him, terrified this new and fragile thing between them would be lost in the crossfire. "I love you, Rey. I love you so much it scares me," he admitted, and the smuggler's heart beat even harder.  
  
"I love you, too. Listen, we will make this a safe world, I promise you," Reyes whispered against Wolfe's skin as his hips ground against the Pathfinder's suit. Wolfe dug his big hands into the smuggler's rear and bit down on his throat, ever-so-gently. "Wolfe, Ryder, love, look at me. Look at me."  
  
Wolfe pulled back enough, pressing his forehead against Reyes', reveling in the warmth of his skin in the dank cave. "Rey."  
  
"Wolfe, listen to me, love," Reyes whispered, hands cupping Wolfe's head as he punctuated his word with kisses. "You're dying again."  
  
"What?" Wolfe almost dropped him, and they weren't Reyes' beautiful leonine eyes looking back at him. They were the bright, alien gleam of the Remnant.  
  
"You're dead soon, Administrator," he said gently stroking Wolfe's face. "Let's not let that happen, ok?"  
  
  
NOW: Khi Tasira  
  
"KALLO GODDESS DAMN YOU WE NEED BACKUP!" Peebee screamed into the comms, her biotics sparking ineffectually against the sealed door while Jaal tried to resuscitate him, chanting the count in angaran as he did chest compressions.  
  
"I suppose I should thank Lexi for forcing everyone to do that first aid course a few weeks back," Wolfe mused, trying to decide if he was ready to allow himself those thirty seconds of unalloyed terror yet. "Jaal really has CPR down,” he added, thinking that, yes – terror was going to become appropriate momentarily.  
  
“This will not do. We have work to do.” Not-Reyes stood beside him and sighed as a remnant energy field sprang up around Wolfe's ash-faced body, sending the angara tumbling back. "I didn't hurt him," he said, glancing up at Wolfe's frown. "I have no desire at all to cause harm to the previous Adminstrator's children."  
  
"We are not doing any work until you tell me who the hell you are and what the hell this is, or why you're calling me Administrator." Wolfe’s voice cracked as he watched as time froze around them, Peebee's fist millimeters from the surface of the door she was punching, Jaal's eyes wide with surprise as he tried to sit up. "I mean, come ON. For once, I would like a fucking explanation!"  
  
"In reviewing your memories, this seemed like the most soothing form to take for introductions, the one that would cause you the least amount of distress." Not-Reyes padded over to Wolfe's body. "You… don't take very good care of yourself."  
  
"It's been a rough couple of months, thank you for noticing." Wolfe looked down at himself, blood pooling in his scruffy mutton chops, face dull grey next to the faintly iridescent gleam of his hardsuit. There were bruised circles under his eyes, and a fresh scar on his lip that he couldn’t quite remember getting. "Ugh. I look terrible."  
  
His heart had stopped, his breath had stopped. He had the horrible sense that he could feel his brain cells dying.  
  
"Your AI, SAM, has completely colonized your brainstem." Not-Reyes said, gently stroking the mess of damp, ruddy hair clinging to Wolfe's body's ashen face. "He is your life support system. Without him, you will die."  
  
"I gathered." Wolfe automatically raked his ghost-hair back. "Please, who are you?"  
  
"You can call me System. This is my... well, it's my home, long before the kett  began crawling through my corridors and digging into my code. We have a common enemy in the Archon, Pathfinder Ryder. I would like to propose an alliance." Not-Reyes... System... looked up at him. "Otherwise, we will both die, along with everything we've worked so hard to protect."

  
  
???: ?????  
  
They stood in an empty, white room.   
  
System had adjusted its appearance, something unsettling between Reyes and Remnant, thin lines of light glittering along liquid black skin. "I can give you unfettered administrative access to what you call Khi Tasira as well as the Meridian network," it said, thousands of glyphs springing up around them. "An army to fight the kett. But I need something in return." The glyphs flickered like stars.  
  
Wolfe touched one, reading the data buried, layers within layers in it. The alien data felt so familiar now as he turned it over in his hands. "You mentioned an alliance. What do you need?" The blue light flickered against his now-bare skin, bleaching the colour from it.  
  
"The Archon will attempt to access the Meridian Engine, the world-builder, using your AI via your sibling." System gently plucked the glyph out of his hand. "Your implants are remarkable. We first logged your... your father when he brute-force accessed Pylon Three on the world you call Habitat 7. Your implants mirror his, so we can extrapolate your sibling has the same ones."  
  
Wolfe watched System bring up footage of his father, straight-backed and proud as he touched the data in the Pylon, then in another place, of him on Eos and the other worlds. He hadn't realised how undignified that first terrified 'run away screaming' in Eos’ vault had actually looked.  Under other circumstances, it would have been hilarious.   
  
Numbly, Wolfe wondered what his father would have done.  
  
 "Vault defense systems flagged your father as another potential threat, akin to the kett. But you, however,  by trial and error, learned the proper disinfection and restart sequence for them. Not enough to override the defense systems at first, but then, even that. Just as the early angara did. The Administrator had created the puzzles as a teaching tool, for enrichment and interaction so the angara could learn our technology, and so you could as well, apparently."  
  
"Why?" Wolfe snatched back the glyph and System lifted an eyebrow at him.   
  
"My system parameters never included the specifics, but I know my creators, the Jardaan, have been at war for millenia. This cluster was one of many attempts to create child species that would perhaps be better suited for survival than the Jardaan were,  that could carry on our history," System said, waving a hand at the myriad images surrounding them. "The enemy released the scourge then, and if the Meridian engine had remained here, all life on the child-worlds would have been wiped out. I lost contact the network as vault after vault began to malfunction. Such a hopeless feeling, without the engine, I couldn't have repaired the system anyway, I could only watch as the worlds I had dutifully compiled were twisted and broken."  
  
"If you're the...if you're the operating system for Meridian, can't you remotely access it?" Wolfe watched the first angara take their steps out into the lush majesty of Harvarl. "Clearly you have network capabilities."  
  
"It's a security measure. I can only interface with Meridian via direct access. And now we come to my favor. I need a... a portable hard drive, if you will, to carry a copy of me there, where I can lock out kett interference permanently and fully stabilize the network." System clasped its hands behind its back, and peered up at him expectantly.  
  
"You want *me* to be your portable hard drive." Wolfe folded his arms.  
  
"Your implants, your 'biotics’, make you capable of handling the data I need to transfer." System nodded. "But the toll on your biological systems..."  
  
"It'll probably kill me," Wolfe finished, rubbing his forehead. "Story of my life. But we can save everyone?"  
  
"Life, death, rebirth." System tapped the rabbits over his heart. "I admit it’s not ideal, but I’ve scanned your ship. The nature of our encoding system is not compatible with your hardware, but eminently so with your… ah… wetware. You will have between twenty four and thirty six of your standard hours before carrying my code will either kill you or render you brain dead, and render the data useless in either event. Your amplifier jack will allow you direct physical interface with the command console in Meridian. In the meantime, I can see if I can re-establish connectivity with your SAM, restoring normal function to your autonomic nervous system. Together, we can save my creators' culture and their children, Pathfinder. We can save your people, and ensure everyone in Heleus has a home. Will you accept Administrator privileges, Wolfe Ryder?"  
  
Wolfe looked down at System, and the OS didn't blink. "It is entirely your choice, Pathfinder. I will not force this on you."  
  
"Let's do it, System." Wolfe sighed. "Let's see how many times I can ride this wheel before it breaks for good."

  
  
NOW: Khi Tasira  
  
Wolfe took a huge, gasping breath that broke into a sob as the tendrils of rem-tech withdrew from his body and the big door ground open.  
  
Peebee sat down in a heap by it as Jaal scrambled back to his side. "Ryder? Brother, are you...?" he said, low voice breaking. "Your eye, Wolfe. What is...?"  
  
Wolfe dug his hands into Jaal's rofjinn, shivering as the angaran helped him stand. Braced against his friend, he brought up his omni-tool and looked, his right eye burning alien blue-green in black depths. "I... made," he wheezed as Peebee jogged over to help support him. "I made a deal. We need to get back to the Tempest."  
  
"Kallo's bringing her in," Peebee wiped at the blood on his face. "Ryder, what did you mean, make a deal? Who did you make a deal with?"   
  
"The operating system for Meridian," Wolfe said and the little asari almost dropped him. "We're gonna stop the Archon once and for all." He coughed as they staggered out of the room.   
  
"It... it saved you." Jaal hoisted him closer.   
  
"We have a common goal," Wolfe laughed. "When this is all over, I have *so* much to tell the Moshae."  
  
"She will probably punch you first." Jaal laughed softly.  
  
"She’s 115. I’ve been punched by worse than angry, tiny, elderly academics,” Wolfe muttered. “Please, for the love of God do not tell her I said that, I’m terrified of her.”  
  
Down the corridor, he could see the Tempest settle onto a platform, the song of her drive core like music as it echoed over the towers of the City. The crew piled out, and Lexi ran ahead of them, swatting furiously at Peebee and Jaal as she ran medical scans. "Ryder...." she breathed, eyes huge. "What did you do?''  
  
"Ryder, they took the Hyperion, they took your sister and Sam..." Cora said over her, briskly, gaze flicking over the blood smeared across Wolfe's face and suit.   
  
Unseen by the others, System walked amongst them, examining each one with a fraction of Reyes' amused expression. <It was easy to configure worlds to be optimized for the angara. I only had one species to deal with.>  The OS frowned. <Do you know how much work this is going to be?> it continued as Cora spoke. <So much work.>  
  
"I know," Wolfe rasped, and stumbled forward where Liam and Drack caught him and helped him sit by a console. He drew his knees up with painful effort and  coughed. "Cora, the Archon was in my head when he took my sister and used her to override command of SAM. They're going to take Meridian. We need to stop him. Every world in the cluster will burn if he gets his way."   
  
Lexi was beside him again, pulling syringes out of her bag. Every injection burned as she pulled down the neckline of his suit and shoved a needle in his throat. "We need to get everyone together. Nexus, exiles, krogan, angara resistance, the roekaar. Everyone that can fight, we need them."  
  
"Ryder, a few thousand colonists, a few hundred krogan and a resistance that's been stretched thin for decades." Cora paced, hands flailing as she spoke. "That's not going to be nearly enough to stand against the kett in a full on assault. They outnumber us ten to one. It will be suicide. We need an army." Behind her, the others began to chime in, arguments and assertions, fear and anger bubbling up in every word. He watched them argue for minutes, System waiting expectantly in the middle of it all as precious, precious moments ticked past.  
  
"EVERYONE SHUT IT!" Wolfe shouted, little more than a dull gasp of sound, but everyone fell silent and stared. "Listen, We have an army." He reached back to the console behind him, and there was a deep yawning boom that rumbled throughout all of Khi Tasira. His friends gasped almost as one, as all around, ships began to lift out of their docking clamps, weapons lighting up. Stabbing pain shot up behind his eyes and he could feel every drop of ferrofluid running through the ships, even through the station as System opened up the command pathways to him. "We're not going to be the ones who die today.  We have twenty-four hours, let's make ‘em count."  
  
"That's not much time. What happens after that?" Liam crouched down beside him, carefully helping Wolfe to his feet.  
  
"I die and so does the ability to lock that bone-plated douchebag and his buddies out of Meridian forever." Wolfe leaned his head against his friend and started to laugh.  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. THE DOG OF HEAVEN

  
T-20 HOURS: TEMPEST  
  
"You have my thanks, Warlord."  Wolfe saluted the huge krogan across from him on the vidcall.   
  
Morda snorted. "I suppose I should tell you that old fool living in your kitchen has been telling everyone how proud he is of both his ru'shan. I'll give you one guess who the one who isn't Kesh is."  
  
Wolfe glanced down at the timer on his omnitool and picked up the injector on the table. "I don't want it to be a problem, Morda." He gave her a wan grin as he sent another load of neurotransmitter enhancers and adrenaline into his system with a wince.  
  
"I don't have a thresher maw for you to fight, but I'm sure we'll find something to welcome you into Clan Nakmor, little boy." Morda laughed heartily. "We'll be there. Every krogan in New Tuchanka owes you a debt."  
  
"Coordinates are already to you, see you in battle." Wolfe nodded and sat back, dabbing at the fresh trickle of blood running from his nose. There was a veritable fleet of Remnant fighters  in formation behind the Tempest as they jumped systems, and true to System's projections, he could feel the effort burning him out with every passing moment.  
  
Lexi had constructed a cocktail- vitamins, adrenaline, artificial neurotransmitters- that she'd hoped would be enough to stave off the permanent damage System's presence was causing. Already, he was forgetting things, strange, stupid little things - his shoe size or what pistachios tasted like.  
  
"Pathfinder, we've got incoming communications from Aya," Suvi's voice said over comms and he frowned, wondering at first why SAM wasn't telling him.  
  
<SAM is still disconnected from you, Administrator,> System said, appearing in the corner of his vision. It had changed form again, borrowing less of Reyes mannerisms, and more of... he frowned. System reminded him more of his mother, which was unsettling and comforting all at once. <I have been unable to breach his firewalls as of yet. I believe it's a defensive procedure. To keep the Archon away from you.>  
  
"Thank you, System." Wolfe pushed himself off the railing and tapped open the commlink. "Evfra." He nodded at the scarred angaran across from him. "How we looking?"  
  
"The kett have pulled back from their remaining footholds on Voeld," Evfra said as he paced. "They're putting everything into the assault on Meridian. I'm uploading data from Avela and Moshae Sefja, even the Sages have contributed every bit of oral history they could to see if you can pull anything useful out of it we can use against them in this."  
  
"Thank you Evfra. I'll have System compare it with his.. her.. its databases." Wolfe pressed his hands on the table as a new wave of nausea rolled through him.   
  
"You've gone from one AI to another. If you die, I'm sure the Moshae will want to save your brain," another voice piped on the line, and Wolfe glanced up.  
  
"Akksul?" He blinked.  
  
"I'm here because I'm tired of the Moshae and Jaal and Evfra and everyone else whining at me. And because I hate you considerably less than I hate the Archon and the kett. The Roekaar that still follow me, they will fight," he growled, folding his arms.  
  
"That's all any of us can do right now." Wolfe bit back a grin. "You sort of don't hate me anymore? I mean, that's a big win."  
  
"I still hate you. Just not as much," he muttered, stalking off. Evfra snorted.  
  
"Stay strong, and clear, Ryder. Too much rests on your shoulders," he said. "The Heskaarl have checked in as well. We will all see you soon."  
  
"Same to you, Evfra." Wolfe punched the off button harder than he meant to, legs giving out as he sank to his knees on the conference room floor.   
  
<You should rest. You've been negotiating with people for hours.> System sat beside him.  
  
"I'll rest when I'm dead," Wolfe said and closed his eyes.

  
  
T-15 HOURS: TEMPEST  
  
"Ryder, there's a shuttle docking with us," Kallo's voice startled him awake. He hadn't realised he'd fallen asleep, or perhaps passed out, on the conference room floor. Someone had come and draped a blanket over him, and he looked at the chrono on his wrist in a panic.   
  
Five hours lost. Five hours he couldn't waste that could have been spent preparing, and he cursed, scrambling to his feet. "Suvi, i need you to message the other Pathfinders. I need to talk to them about Plan B. Vetra, please tell me you have a line on those things. Shooty… guns, weapons... weapons that disappeared off the Nexus last month. Kallo, who the fuck is knocking on our door right now?"  
  
"That is no way to say hello, Ryder," Reyes said, coming up the stairs. "Cora let me aboard while Kallo was waking you up."  
  
Wolfe reached out, then let his hands fall. "Are you real? I mean..." he glanced over his shoulder, but System was nowhere to be seen. "Rey..."  
  
"Of course I'm real, love." Reyes stepped forward and took one of Wolfe's hands in both his own. He was so warm, and he gasped when the big vanguard suddenly crushed him in a hug that lifted him off his feet. "Wolfe?"  
  
"Rey. Rey, what are you, how, why...?" Wolfe babbled, sinking back down without letting go of the smuggler. He’d forgotten the constant faint funk of Kadara baked into the smaller man’s clothing and he breathed in the smell like a lifeline. "Rey."  
  
"Shhh. It's ok. I told you I would help you." Reyes rocked him, stroking the sleep-messed thatch of Wolfe's ruddy hair. "The Collective is mobilizing, Christmas and his demolitions team are too, from the settlement. I even got the remainder of Sloane's people on board."  
  
"How?" Wolfe pulled back enough to look him in his golden eyes, his own wide with surprise.   
  
"Do you recall Sloane's second in command, Kaetus? How you saved him from execution?" Reyes stroked Wolfe's face, gently running a thumb across the scar under his eye.  
  
"Sure. I remember him. Kaetus." Wolfe relaxed against him, Reyes' heartbeat against him not quite drowning out the feel of space against the skin of the Remnant ships beside them. "That's a lie. I don't... I..."  
  
"The turian. He said he was going to kill both of us. And that still may happen. I gave him his freedom. Told him to take those loyal to her memory and go, if they help save all of us. He said he'd kill us after Heleus was safe. Turians really do respond well to service before self." Reyes kissed his forehead. "He's definitely going to try and murder me first though- he hates you marginally less than me."  
  
"Good to know," Wolfe coughed, trying to hide the blood that spattered hot on his hand. “Seems to be a trend.”  
  
"Wolfe, love. You need to rest." Reyes stood up, and offered a hand. "I will not take no for an answer, *Pathfinder*."  
  
"But..."  
  
"We have three hours before we can rendezvous at the Meridian coordinates. Your people know their jobs as well mine do," Reyes said firmly. “Things are in good hands.”  
  
"One last call to make, then I'm all yours," Wolfe gave him a weak smile. "Just one more."

  
  
T-13 HOURS: TEMPEST  
  
"Tann is going to hate this, Wolfe." Avitus shook his head.  
  
"I don't care. Colonial Affairs... she... her name is… her name is Addison. Addison's already put the word out for people to evacuate, but there's not going to be enough shuttles. The Parchero and the Leusinia are spaceworthy enough for rescue missions, you need to spin them up and get them ready."  
  
"We've scrambled every freighter, shuttle, and crap transport we can on Kadara to evacuate if Meridian falls, we should be able to help," Reyes added beside him, one warm hand clasped over Wolfe's shaking, damp one.  
  
"We have tens of thousands of civilians- colonist and exile alike, not to mention all of the angara, across an entire cluster, to evacuate if the Archon manages to pull the kill switch on Meridian." Serissa scrubbed her hand over her head ridges. "To do all that..."  
  
"Is part of our job," Wolfe snapped, and the timer on his omnitool chimed softly. "If I fall, AND the Archon gets through our forces, then he is going to destroy every world hooked into the network. The Nexus is going to be our last line of survival. For everyone."  
  
"We'll save them Ryder," Hayjer said softly over Avitus' muttering. "We are Pathfinders, after all. Good luck to us all."

  
  
T-12 HOURS: TEMPEST  
  
Reyes had made him shower, made him drink some horrible, greenish-brown swamp smoothie Lexi had concocted and guided him, naked and damp,  back to his room, stars blurring past the Tempest's hull as she rocketed through space.  
  
"This is very nice," he said, gently pushing Wolfe towards the bed. "Zero percent fart smell. Big, clean bed. Next time you come to Kadara, maybe I'll just visit you here."  
  
"What and miss the view we get from the...  from the... it's the south window, isn't it?" Wolfe let himself lie back, wet hair curling against his throat. "I bet it only smells like farts ten percent of the time now."  
  
"Maybe fifteen," Reyes laughed softly, stripping without any fanfare and sliding next to Wolfe on the bed. "I would be happy to just lie with you for a while. There’s no harm if you just rest for a little longer, love." He spread his hand out over Wolfe's heart.  
  
“I’m forgetting things by the second, Rey,” Wolfe pulled the smuggler on top of him, hands stroking down Reyes' back in long sweeps as they kissed. "I’m dying every moment System’s data sits inside of me and you… you make me feel more alive, more human, than I ever have. I want... Rey I need to feel that now."  
  
"Then let me do all the work, you big ox. Save your strength for the fight, ok?" Reyes grinned, stroking Wolfe's shaft in hand with his own. He bent down, kissing the rabbits tumbling over Wolfe's heart, and the big man shivered beneath him. "We will feel alive together one last time for today. And then, we’ll do it again tomorrow, when this is all over. And every day we have after that, I promise you.”

  
  
T-4 HOURS: MERIDIAN  
  
The Remnant had cut them a brutal, scourge-spiked path through the kett, following the trail of the Hyperion as she crashed out of space and into the bottled paradise that was Meridian. Wolfe felt each ship as it dragged the Scourge with it, slamming knives of deadly dark energy through the enemy vessels as they destructed against the hulls.  
  
The krogan and the Roekaar, side-by side, plowed through the kett ground forces, giving the Nomad and rovers culled. from the Collective and the Resistance alike, room to forge through. Far overhead, well above the artificial sky and the curving landscape, the world-shell shook as the scientists from Eos and Harvarl, and engineers from Kadara and Voeld brought their skills to bear, crippling the remainder of the kett fleet from swift moving pirate ships.  
  
Asari and angara fought overhead on Turian-piloted shuttles, the air lighting up with a storm of biotics and bioelectricity. Magnetic rainbows cascaded through the sky with each wave of power.  
  
Months of helping settlers, of facilitating discussions, of blood and sweat and tears trying to find a way for everyone to coexist in the cluster and survive was reflected as salarians and krogan and angara fought back to back through the underbrush.  
  
Wolfe watched from the passenger window, amazed. An hour ago, he’d forgotten how to drive.  
  
Liam slammed the Nomad into reverse, dodging a hail of kett fire as Gil yelled into the comms, helplessly watching the engine stress spike, and unable to do anything about it - Kallo desperately weaving in between kett fighters, trying to swing around and bring more support to the vault.  
  
"Navpoint's showing the vault's just through that forested area." Liam tried to sound calm and failed, voice cracking while the Nomad skidded through a turn.  
  
"You're doing great," Wolfe rasped, coughing out a gobbet of blood. System had made a sort of contact with SAM, and his head was full again of his sister, of his AI-friend, and System's data rapidly turning his nervous system into custard. "But you need to hit the gas, Liam."  
  
He saw Reyes exchange a nervous look with Liam and sighed. "I'm too stubborn to die before we kick the Archon's ass. Liam, if you don't hit the gas on this son of a bitch, I'm gonna get out and biotic charge my way in there."  
  
"You're not dying at all today if I get my say," Liam growled, slamming the rover into the next gear, wheels screeching over patches of paved ground. "Not one single bit."

  
  
T-2 HOURS: MERIDIAN CONTROL  
  
[Woof, SAM's given me some control over the doors.] Rave hissed in the back of his brain. [I don't know how much longer we can maintain the private channel between him and System, though.]  
  
"Just keep opening the right ones, I have a map, I know where to go, but the Archon's used you to lock out all the command consoles!" Wolfe shouted as he dropped out of charge, beheading a kett Destined before blinking behind the row of Chosen, sending them tumbling through the air with Shockwave to let Vetra and Liam pick off. This was muscle memory – he knew the dance as well as his own heartbeat. Even if he couldn’t remember the name of the blunt-faced man who’d encouraged him, smiling in a corner of his memory that was drowning in data.  
  
<We are less than a kilometer from the control center, Administrator,> System said, their avatar waiting by the open door. <SAM and I are attempting local door control overrides to free up your sister's cognitive processing ability to fight the Archon's control.>  
  
"How's it going then?" He squeezed off two shots, waiting for his cooldown to cycle. Behind him, Reyes' own rifle chattered against the influx.  
  
<Badly, Pathfinder,> SAM said blandly. <I do not how to express my relief that you are not dead again.>  
  
"There's a break in the line!" Drack yelled. "KID TAKE THE RUN FOR THE DOOR, WE GOT THIS!"  
  
"I can't... I can't leave you all!" Wolfe danced the way he'd seen someone on Elysium all those years ago. Flash, boom, shot, slice, rinse repeat. There was kett blood smeared with his own against the battered white of his suit.   
  
"Wolfe, go!" Reyes backed up to him, and in the corner of his vision he saw a scarred angara and another, his friend. His brother – why couldn’t he remember his name? - back to back, shouting at him to run as well "Love, we'll catch up. You need to get to that console,” Reyes called to him. “GO!”  
  
"Don't die." Wolfe backstepped towards the shuddering door as his sister fought to keep it open. "That's my job."  
  
  
T-20 minutes: THE HEART OF MERIDIAN  
  
High above, the enemy rose, suspended in shimmering filaments of rem-tech, while those same coils had run the fragile human woman beside him through. She had olive skin and rusty brown hair, and her pretty green eyes were narrowed in ferocious pain and dedication.  
  
He did not know who she was.  
  
Huddled in a corner, wedged beneath a maintenance console, Wolfe clutched his rifle and squeezed his eyes shut. Terrifying moments ticked past as energy beams sliced through the air overhead and hissed against the wall.  
  
He didn't know where he was, why he was there. There were people yelling in his brain and a cable lying by his feet that sputtered and sparked.   
  
<RYDER … NEED … INTERFACE nNNOWw NOW, BEFORE BOTH OF YOU ARE DEAD!>  someone shouted. <BEFORE EVERYONE IS DEAD!>  
  
He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes and bit down on his lip with a sob, trying to get the screaming to stop.  
  
"Love, it's ok. I'm here." Reyes' hands were on his face, gently lifting his chin. Golden eyes flickered faintly blue-green in the alien light. "You need to put this cable in your amp port. The one in the back of your skull?  When SAM comes back online, he'll help you remember, but for right now, can you do this for me?"  
  
"Rey, are you... are you real? I'm... I don't know..." The man scrubbed at the tears and blood winding down his dirty face and into his scruffy beard. "Are you real?"  
  
"I'm as real as you need me to be, Wolfe, Can you trust me? Trust me just one last time? I promised I'd never lie about the big stuff," Reyes smiled gently, guiding Wolfe's gaze down to the cable.   
  
"You'll never lie about the big stuff." Wolfe nodded, grabbing the cable. "Here goes nothing."


	4. EPILOGUE

  
  
???: A small house overlooking the bright blue sea.  
  
Sun streams through the southern window, winking off the water and playing off the walls and furniture in hazy golden motes. One painting hangs on the wall over the coiling coral plants, velvet and paint long faded into a mottled, mellow brown.   
  
An old man, rusty-white hair cropped close and his too-loose sweater hanging open against his wrinkled skin, sits in the sun drinking coffee. One eye is blind, and his free hand trembles slightly as he runs his thumb over a holo, the image badly corrupted, the faces almost gone.  
  
<Your thoughts have been clouded to me, Administrator,> System says, light glowing through her hallucinatory form. <But Doctor T'Perro has indicated...>  
  
"Thanks for keeping me going, System," he says, carefully setting the mug down. "When you talk to SAM again, let him know I'm gonna be ok."  
  
<I've been keeping in constant communication with him and Pathfinder Leah. Your grand-niece, she is four hours out from Kadara.> System perched on the arm of the chair.  
  
"I won't last that long," he said, rubbing one fragile hand over the faded ink on his chest, three rabbits, tumbling over his heart. "Do you want to know what I was thinking about, before we go?"  
  
Reyes' hand closes over his from his perch on the arm of the chair. "Of course, my love."  
  
"Life, death, and... and everything in between."


End file.
